Public expects gridlock if Democrats pick up seats

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Americans foresee "more gridlock" in government if Democrats take over the House and/or the Senate after elections this fall, a CNN poll shows.

And while the poll shows a majority of Americans would favor probes by a Democratic Congress into Bush administration actions, most Americans oppose impeaching President Bush.

Interviews with a total of 1,004 adult Americans were conducted by telephone on August 30-September 2 by Opinion Research Corporation. (Read the complete poll results -- PDF)

Respondents were asked "next year, it is possible that the country will have a Republican president and a Democratic Congress. Do you think that is more likely to result in more cooperation between the two parties or more likely to result in more gridlock and stalemate in the government?"

Seventy percent expect "gridlock and stalemate" while 27 percent believe there would be "cooperation between the two parties." Three percent had no opinion. Half the sample, or 502 people, was asked the gridlock question.

Fifty-seven percent of the respondents said they think it would be good for the country "if the Democrats in Congress were able to conduct official investigations into what the Bush administration has done in the past six years." Forty-one percent said such probes would be bad for the country. Half of the sample was asked this question, also.

At the same time, 69 percent said Bush should not be impeached or removed from office, with 30 percent saying he should be impeached or removed from office. One percent had no opinion. A total of 1,004 adults was asked the questions about impeachment.

The sampling error for the results for the impeachment question was plus or minus 3 percent. The sampling error for the poll of half of the people surveyed was plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.